Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Drummond Report taxes credulity

As wildly different as they may be, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Rob Ford do have one thing in common: Both insist we can do more on less.

They’re not the only politicians who feel that way. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find an elected leader willing to speak the truth about paying for the services we receive.

To Ford’s credit, he did see his way clear to raising property taxes 2.5 percent, a rare — no, unique — display of realism on his part. But that won’t make up for the $65 million he threw away with the cancellation of the vehicle registration tax last year.

For McGuinty, the problems are, if anything, more dire. Ontario, historically Canada’s economic engine, is sputtering. That’s why he hired economist Don Drummond to take a hard look at the situation. Doing what adherents of the dismal science always do, Drummond’s response outlines the finer points of self-mutilation.

His report puts one in mind of the KPMG document much quoted in the city’s last round of budget cutting. Both followed a sort of bottom-line reductio ad absurdum logic that leads nowhere, except to more of the same.

Still, Drummond isn’t entirely to blame for the lack of imagination; he was instructed not to examine tax increases.

Yet the idea that governments can slash and burn their way to prosperity doesn’t hold. That doesn’t stop us from clinging to it as if our very lives were at stake.

Ford, for example, dreams of firing 7,000 city employees. Then what? These people won’t disappear just because they’re off the payroll. Some will find a new job, most likely a low-paying contract position with no benefits; others will go on the dole, even welfare, stop spending and pay less tax as they get sucked into the downward spiral.

How does that help? Isn’t that just transferring debt from one entity to another, from public sector to private individuals? Figures show that in Canada today the poor are poorer, the rich richer and the gap between the two larger than ever.

Wages have been falling for decades, though corporate profits and executive salaries are up. Little wonder, then, that household debt has reached unprecedented levels across Canada as people struggle to keep up.

The fact is that for the first time in generations, certainly since the end of World War II, the future looks a whole lot less rosy than the past. The long upward trajectory that carried Toronto, Ontario, and Canada to unprecedented standards of living has turned downward. There have been highs and lows before, but the crises in the U.S., Europe and here indicate something more profound.

Some would say the money has simply moved west to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But the price those provinces will pay — environmental devastation — will be ruinous.

Still we’re incapable of grownup discussion. The curious case of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is illustrative. Instead of dealing with real issues, he has retreated, like an angry child, into a series of programs each more petulant and willful than the next — prisons, minimum sentences, online spying, killing the long-gun registry and the mandatory long-form census…. None of these are necessary, vital, or even justifiable except on emotional grounds, which is where the Tories have arrived only months after winning a majority.

Though tax hikes weren’t on the table, Drummond suggests enhanced user fees and improved tax collection could add $2 billion to provincial coffers. Good start, but that adult conversation has yet to happen.

Original Article
Source: Star 
Author: Christopher Hume 

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